“Well, don’t let us stop you,” Maile exclaimed. “Let me get my knitting, and we’ll watch.”
His gaze met Tani’s for a second. It was strange, interacting with this woman after so long. He and Tani had bought into the lie that he was simply an orphan adopted by her housekeeper so well, sometimes he forgot it wasn’t the truth.
Eve shifted closer, so they were standing barely a shoulder width apart. He glanced down at her shiny hair. This, he didn’t have much experience with. Another person in on the secret that had governed his whole life? He felt raw and exposed, but weirdly... like it was right Eve knew and could give him comfort.
Her fingers brushed against him. The touch was so light and fleeting, he wondered if he’d imagined it, but then it came again. It brought with it a burst of warmth and comfort, like someone had wrapped his soul up in cotton and hugged it. Was this how Jackson and Livvy felt when their partners were near them?
Not that they were partners, of course.
The next time her hand brushed his, he looped his pinky around hers. She stilled and they both kept their heads forward. The others in the room continued to talk, working out the logistics of their next activity. They were forgotten here. He stroked his finger against her palm, up and then down.
Slowly, she interlaced their hands together, and gave him a squeeze. He squeezed back. Though it pained him, he released her, and not a moment too soon, because Maile looked directly at them. “Eve, can you show me to my room so I can freshen up?”
“Of course,” she said.
As Eve moved away from him, Gabe balled his hand into a fist, as if he could capture the feeling she’d given him. He didn’t want that warmth to disappear. It should scare him, how badly he wanted to keep it for himself.
The fact that it didn’t scare him was even scarier.
Chapter 19
Once upon a time, when Eve was a senior in high school, she’d wandered past a field where a bunch of men were playing football. Gabe had been amongst them.
It had been the first time she’d seen him since she was a kid. She’d recognized him instantly, the sun glistening on his sweaty skin and tattoos and muscles. She’d stood there for a long time, watching him. Perving on him.
When her friend had said she wanted to get a tattoo a few years later, Eve had jumped at the chance to go with her. Of course, Gabe hadn’t seen her as a woman then. Or when she’d thrown herself at him at the bar, that one embarrassing night he didn’t even remember. Now that she thought about it, though, those were good things, points in his favor. She’d been too young then to tangle up with an older man.
She lifted her glass of iced tea, tracing her finger over the condensation on the outside of the glass. Gabe and Jackson and Nicholas and Livvy were all playing volleyball, Sadia and Kareem sitting on the sidelines, cheering and keeping score. Gabe had his shirt off, so she was pretty much useless.
Not much had changed. Here she was, all these years later, still perving on him while he played a sport. Only this time, she was definitely a woman. And she’d felt that body against hers. In hers.
Eve took a big gulp of iced tea and tried to let it cool her overheated body.
“Did you finish the yellow, dear?”
Eve started and looked down at the ball of yarn in her lap. She placed her drink hastily on the table and put the wound ball in the bag next to Maile’s chair. “Yes, ma’am. What color is next?”
“You don’t have to sit here, helping me.” Maile’s knitting needles clicked and flew, spinning yarn between two needles. “You can go play with the other kids.”
Eve automatically smiled at the thought of someone calling her and her contemporaries “kids.” It wasn’t hurtful at all, coming from Maile, who had held all of them as babies. “No, I’m fine, thank you. Swimming and horseback riding is about as active as I get. I don’t love sweating.”
Maile smirked. She was dressed in a soft lavender spring dress, a cropped cardigan around her shoulders. “Neither do I. That’s why I learned how to knit.”
“I’d love to learn how to knit someday.”
“Well, you’re family now, so I’ll teach you my secrets,” Maile said companionably.
Family.
She clutched the word close to her heart and gazed out at the others, playing merrily, none of them aware that Gabe was also part of their family. She wished...
No, no, no. You are not to get involved. You promised.She cleared her throat. “What are you making?”
“A blanket.”
“Is it a gift?”
“No, not this one. It’s for sale.”
